Playlist: Jenny Schecter

It’s been ten years since The L Word premiered, and we’ve got lots to talk about. Welcome to The L Word week!

Jenny Schecter won my heart somewhere towards the end of season one of The L Word, most likely the moment she told Tim that she was writing a story about a mute woman who could speak the language of manatees. As the seasons rolled on, the more bizarre and unpredictable Jenny Schecter became (or the more shitty the writing for her character became, either way), the harder I fell, and I remained a loyal card-carrying fan right up until her very end.

When I think about Jenny Schecter, those thoughts are a little dark and a little sad. She is dead now, after all. Therefore this music is a little dark and sad too. If you’re not in the mood to be bummed out today, our Shane McCutcheon and Alice Pieszecki playlists might be more your jam.

What songs remind you of Jenny? What do you think Jenny’s favourite band is? Laneia, Riese and I tried to figure this out a while ago; we agreed that Jenny probably owns the Reality Bites soundtrack and then Laneia observed that she probably can’t watch the film anymore because Lelaina was so obviously the precursor to the modern manic pixie dream girl, which makes her physically ill. Also because she’s dead, I guess.

Crystal is HR Director and Autostraddle OG. She's a 31-year-old Australian who enjoys wrestling pythons and playing rugby with dropbears. Soon she'll be following her heart to Chicago. She's heard it's cold there.

Yesssss. I also feel like Jenny would listen to Neko Case or maybe just live inside of a Neko Case song. Or maybe I just sometimes sit around listening to Neko Case and thinking about Jenny. You know. Whatever.

My tolerance for Jenny waxed and waned, and this maybe as another thread addressed, had more to do with my ability to handle the feelings that a depressed and confused and alienated woman can evoke in an audience/friend as played brilliantly by Mia Kirschner (can do).
I get the impression that Jenny may have loved
Mazzy Star: Into Dust, Sweet Mary of Silence
The Chills: Pink Frost
The Smiths: How soon is now, There is a light that never goes out
Suede: Pantomime horse and The next life also Sleeping Pills
Velvet Underground: Lady Godiva’s operation, Venus in furs, Who loves the sun? All tomorrow’s parties
Nirvana: Oh me, The man who stole the world
Pearl Jam: Not for you, Immortality, Elderly woman behind the counter in a small town
Neil Young: Old laughing lady
Joni Mitchell: Hejira and Blue, Hissing of Summer lawns
Patti Smith: Dancing barefoot, ask the angels
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Mercy, Mercy Seat, Stranger than kindness
Leonard Cohen: Avalanche, Last year’s man, Famous blue raincoat, Love calls you by your name, Master song, Stranger song,
Ani de Franco: Everest
The Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane, I’m so lonesome I could die
Fly my pretties: Singing in my soul
Harold Budd and Brian Eno: The Pearl

HELL YES to the Leonard Cohen and Nirvana covering Bowie. En fait, for Mazzy I’d go with Rhymes of An Hour. To me, that sounds like the submissive abyss. But lez be honest, Jenny’s soul is just the entire Mazzy Star catalogue on repeat.

I’m also kind of feeling The Blow’s “Invisible” for Jenny’s break-up moments.

I think Jenny seems like the type to like the more dark-ish stuff from Depeche Mode or the Cure. I think Charlotte Sometimes from the Cure and Depeche Mode’s Barrel of a Gun would be her jam, specially during her depressed, crazy flash back memory phase. I also see her possibly enjoying and even relating to Judas Priest’s classic – Victim of Changes.

Roads by Portishead is like the ultimate TV angsty melodrama signifier. L Word used it obvs, plus it was in This Life loads. Also, bizarrely, Hollyoaks for a stretch of the early 2000s, seemed to open with it almost every episode (I was watching it for some lesbians, naturally, although I can no longer remember who they were because I have Hollyoaks Character Blindness).

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